Life by Betsy

This past Sunday, I heard a sermon that mentioned we need not go in search of new, grand revelations about God. We need to open our Bible and revel in what has already been given to us. I need to put that into practice. So, this early evening, as I lazily and finally opened my Bible app to get some truth in me, like a spiritual vitamin to boost my health, I wondered how God could use 1 Samuel to speak to me. I'm listening and reading through the Bible cover to cover, and it can often feel like reading a work of history in these early books and not the divine truth of God Almighty. Here, sceptical as I came, God spoke. Normally, I encourage more than I quote in this blog, but then again, it has been a long time. Things have changed. I have changed. So, the following section of scripture will speak for itself, and I will tack on my reflection as if it were a patchy, red "Betsy Approved" stamp on the back of a stunning Monet. The word speaks. I am just so freshly aware of...

*Update: This was post was published the day before I lived through a school shooting as a student teacher. On March 20, 2018, a student killed his ex girlfriend with a handgun in the halls of the school, and then took his own life as a resource officer fired. The shooter walked by my open classroom door, gun in hand. I did not see him. My co-teacher did. We were able to escape through connecting doors to an outside exit, into the parking lot, with a handful of students. There is more I could say. I found it sickening to think I had thought through this all before living it first-hand, but now I find it awe inspiring that God allowed me preparation in this way. With time, trauma therapy, and healing, I am able to reflect again. I can feel my mental capacity increasing again, and it is a breathtaking thing to experience. Expect more encouragement and reflections from me on this blog in the coming days and years, especially in this season of global pandemic. What extraordinary times I am...

A snowday Luke 4 reflection-- When Jesus goes into the wilderness, after John baptizes him, he is full of the Holy Spirit. As he is in the wilderness, the devil tempts him by targeting 3 specific things that we all as humans are drawn to: provision, power, and pride. Jesus, the same man who as a boy ran to the temple of his Father to learn the scriptures, now full of the Spirit too, combats each temptation with scripture. What struck me most were those 3 temptations: provision, power, and pride. 1. We as people have a desire to have provisions, for survival and beyond that for comfort. Jesus counters by pointing himself (and throigh reading, us) back to God as the source for humanity's deepest need. 2. We want control- of our lives, of our surpundings, of others even. We want money, power, security, respect, even dominion in our world. Jesus counters by calling himself first and foremost a servant of God, not a king of peoples. Furthermore, he (by extension, we) is to adore in...

Tomorrow is December 1 and I realize I have come to a place in life where I know I have a relationship with God, but seem to have forgotten how I have that relationship to begin with. I, in my history brain, have subconsciously locked the person of Jesus to the past. Sure, he rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, but silly Betsy, he is still alive! Who is he, really, not just who was he? If he is the only way to the Father, he is worth knowing deeply as an individual member of the trinity. The father I know. The spirit calls to me in nature and worship and ties me through prayer to the father. But what about Jesus? Anyways, this may seem like a "duh" situation, but for me it is hitting hard, especially at the beginning of the advent season. My point is, this season, I want to fall deeply in love with Jesus for all he was, is, and will be forever. He is more than a bridge to the father, and more than a role model. He is my savior, my brother, and my dear friend. ...

I've been thinking about "church" a lot lately, how the very place designed to bring people to God has hurt some people so badly that they all together run from religion, how friends and I can grow up in the same faith and even the same building and have completely different experiences, how what some people see as a cult others see as devotion, how different families of my home church had vastly different Christian cultures than my family or school did, how some people respond well to structural faith and others need more freedom in relationship, how I need a balance of both, how we ornatly decorate sanctuaries yet fill those sanctuaries with broken people and then expect people to feel comfortable coming on Sundays in their brokenness and not feel pressured to look more put together, how my friends have fallen through the cracks, how I have fallen through the cracks in a lot of ways too yet eneded up just fine and stronger even in my walk of faith, how silly s...

Mini-rant from a young adult Christian female feminist and future teacher -- I wish we lived in a culture that wasn't dominated by male-driven female sexual exploitation and objectification. Imagine a world where women could gain societal respect and socioeconomic mobility without needing to use their bodies or sexuality... Too often female empowerment equates to women sexualizing themselves to gain power in the sex based cultural system we have now. I want to see women who are confident in their physicality, yes, but women who are so much more. By reducing yourself to simply your sexuality, you empower the system of male-dominated female objectification, feeding off of an evil you are only helping to grow. You want to talk about taking back female power from a male driven society? Start by refusing to play the game. True power is changing the game. Your worth comes from God above, and is in the whole of who you are-- not how many people you turn on in order to be seen or hear...

I have been reflecting this weekend on why we create space for Good Friday and Easter Sunday in our calendars and our minds but skip over Saturday. What I have come to realize is that we as people are so locked into our own experiences and our perceptions of what is happening around us that we remember the visible Gospel work of Christ and not the invisible. Christ lived a visible life.   He spoke in streets, from boats, on mountainsides, and in temples. He did miracles in private and public, depending on the need. He healed a man's servant from afar and healed a few men's friend from paralysis in front of a full room. Christ died a visible death.   He was hung out and hung up to die, strapped and nailed down to a cross raised on a rocky hilltop, bleeding and vulnerable for all to see. While much of His pain is unknowable and unseen, His death and anguish were cruel and yet necessarily public. Christ rose a visible resurrection!   The entry was open, the ston...